Electra

Erin raised an eyebrow. "Sounds like fun, but I've got way too much homework. I'll let you guys take care of the partying, if there's partying to be done. And you should probably leave the cat. I'm not sure he'd like Miami very well, and he really doesn't like being cooped up in small places." Oliver yawned agreement at that, arching his back and jumping down from Mark's arms to give himself a quick bath. "Just don't forget your sunscreen."

Stesha kissed him back, resting her fingers lightly against his cheek as she looked up at him. "I have too," she told him. "With everything that's happened these past couple months, it's made me think about a lot of things. About the two of us." She smiled, running her thumb over the corner of his mouth. "I know I love you. And I think I've probably made it pretty clear what my ideal long-term plans are, old-fashioned or not. Have you made any decisions about what you want to do, where you want to be?"

Stesha chuckled, looping her arms around his neck and trying to let go of her worries about Taylor's predicament for the moment. It wasn't as though there was anything either of them could do right now. "Maybe we should," she agreed, smiling up at him. "It's a new year, after all, a good time for making plans, about all sorts of things. And if you have a panic attack," she added teasingly, "I'll find you a paper bag. What exactly did you have in mind?"

Oliver butted James' fingers with his head appreciatively, still purring, but seemed content to let Mark hold him for the moment. "Sounds good to me," Erin agreed. "Might as well get out of here before one of the seniors finds us and tosses us out anyway." She started replacing the chairs that had been pushed aside for the ritual, setting the room back to rights. "What about it, Mark, you hungry?"

"I guess that's true," Stesha said, resting her head against his shoulder. "I hope Jack isn't really horrible to her about this. I mean... it can't be his, but it had to come from somewhere. I'm sure Taylor didn't cheat but... that just makes everything really confusing. If he hurts her or makes her feel bad... well, he'll regret it," she decided, with a frown that fell somewhat short of ferocious, but tried hard at it. "I kind of wish she'd call, just so I'd know what's going on."

Erin grimaced. Getting an infodump from Alex was a little like being hit in the brain by a semi full of knowledge, but it was a lot faster than going to the library and generally more reliable than looking at the internet. This seemed like an area where she didn't want to risk getting a lot of misinformation, with so much money at stake. "All right, lay it on me," she finally agreed with a half-laugh.

Stesha returned to the living room, now dressed in blouse and slacks and with her hair in a long wet braid down her back. She immediately went to Derrick and hugged him. It made her feel a little better. "I think you're right," she agreed. "I just hope she will ask for help when she needs it. I know this isn't something she was looking for, or part of her plan. I was wondering how I would feel if it were me and not her. Scared, I imagine, but excited too. But then, I have different plans for my life. I hope she'll be all right."

"She's upset," Stesha told him with a little shrug. She headed into the bedroom, raising her voice to continue the conversation. It was unlikely that Derrick would compose himself enough to solidify while she wasn't dressed, so putting on some clothes was really the best idea. "You're right that they shouldn't even be able to have kids, so it was a heck of a shock. I'm okay, I'm just worried about her. It's hard to know what I can do to help. I almost feel bad that I got her to take the test, when the result was something she really didn't want to hear."

"We should wait, definitely," Stesha told him, picking up her towel from the floor. "I don't know exactly what happened, or how, or why, but it's going to be very complicated, I'm sure. That's one reason she needed to find a good doctor right away. We're just going to let them announce what they want to when they're ready to talk about it." She smiled ruefully. "Announcing secrets that don't belong to you just causes confusion and trouble, as I guess we've just seen. Are you okay?"

Stesha goes on 13!

Stesha followed his gesture, her eyes widening and her mouth opening in surprise. "Ace called you?" she echoed faintly. She was going to have to have a couple of words with Ace next time she saw him. Taking a deep breath, she ran a hand over her hair, knocking the towel to the floor. "Sweetheart... it's not me. I'm not pregnant. It's Taylor. I was helping her, I called Ace to help find a doctor for her, because she didn't want him to tease her. He must have jumped to conclusions, but I didn't realize he would call you and scare you." She wanted to reach out and touch him, but that reflex was finally starting to fade when he was in his energy form. Her lips curved a little. "I promise, if it ever does happen for us, I'll call you before Ace, or anybody else."

Stesha stared at him while the words came tumbling out, trying to figure out what on earth he was on about. Whatever it was had him so excited that she could only catch about half of it, and not the half that made any sense. It didn't help that she couldn't see the expression on his face at all when he was like this. "I love you too," she told him with a smile, since that seemed like the most important gist of it. "Can you slow down and say most of that again? I think I missed something."

He was still standing there a few minutes later when Stesha finished up in the shower and came out, one towel wrapped around her body and another futilely trying to contain her hair. She caught sight of him, still floating in the middle of the room in his energy form, on her way to the bedroom. "Take off your coat and stay awhile," she invited teasingly. Sometimes, when he was caught up enough in work, Derrick could zone out a little, just hanging in one place like a really odd, dark shadow in a bright room. "I'm just going to get dressed."

"Derrick?" Stesha called curiously from the shower, hands stilling momentarily as she paused in the laborious task of washing her hair. "I'm in the shower, I'll be out in a few minutes!" He was done awfully early today. She'd thought to grab a shower while Taylor was likely to be busy dealing with Jack, just so she'd be ready for any new surprises the day decided to throw at her. Not ready enough, it seemed. At least having Derrick around on her morning off was a nice surprise. Out in the living room, Derrick was left on his own for a few minutes. Stesha often let a bit of clutter accumulate, but there was more of it than usual. Cups and plates on the table, as well as a white plastic indicator stick sitting on a napkin, and a sheet of instructions. Even without getting too close, he could see the line "-CTIONS FOR USING YOUR HOME PREGNANCY TE-" visible across the top of the half-crumpled paper.

Stesha politely nudged aside the idea of a sidekick, for all that she was laughing inside at the idea. "I have enough to learn myself about doing hero work, now's not the time for me to be training someone else. I have good friends who have really helped me learn the ropes, and that's really important when you're starting out. It's very hard to work on your own." She talked a little bit about the fight with Vaslev Tcheny in response to the second question; she hadn't fought him alone, but he'd certainly been a lot more of a threat than the Beekeeper, who'd at least been keeping a low profile lately. Hearing people appreciate her work was very nice too. Stesha began to relax more as she got into the rhythm of the session, sneaking the occasional glance over at her friends. Both Dark Star and Phantom would have much better stories to tell, maybe next year they would participate too. That would be fun.

Stesha was an old hand at diapering wiggly babies, after an adolescence spent babysitting around her neighborhood, but these little guys were providing a special challenge. They were awfully strong, for one thing! She eventually wound up wrapping Bitey up like a present, securing the diaper on him and then wrapping him up in vines from shoulders to knees to keep him from wriggling it off again. He wasn't very happy about it at all, but could be bribed with a steady infusion of breadsticks. Not so with his sister, who not only refused the diaper but was slippery enough to escape back into the pool before Stesha could grab her. With a sigh, Stesha grabbed the skimmer net, waiting for her target to come back into range and letting Jack deal with the one who could fly.

Erin's eyes widened a bit at that. "Your parents are just letting you play with forty-five thousand dollars? That's a lot of trust in your stock picking abilities." She shook her head, a bit incredulously. "Guess you better get them something really nice for Christmas." The thought of handling that much money, even by proxy over a computer screen just in case of middle-of-the-night fluctuations, was a little daunting. "And maybe I better get a book or do some research or something before I sign onto this. I don't want to lose everything on beet futures by accident or something. I don't even know what futures are, except that they're mostly for farm products."

"I'll have to think about it," Stesha admitted. "I don't want to miss your big day, I just... I guess I have to get used to the idea of dealing with him. Maybe if we can just leave well enough alone, with a lot of space in between us, it'll be okay." Stesha smiled a little. "I've dealt with enough feuds, family and otherwise, at weddings to know that a good seating chart can do all sorts of wonderful tricks. Have you set a date for the wedding yet?"

"All right," Stesha said, returning the hug. "If there's anything I can do, just let me know. I can be there in a moment as long as you're near a plant. It's going to be okay," she said again, and mustered a reassuring smile despite her own worry. "And if he gives you any trouble, just shove a clove of garlic anywhere the sun won't hit it. That'll probably shut him up. And put some ginger ale and crackers into your pocket. My mom swears by them, and she had six kids herself, not to mention midwifing. There's got to be something to it." She stepped back, feeling helpless to do any more at the moment.

Since the phone was still out on the table, Stesha hastened to pick it up before it had a chance to dump to voicemail. Her brow furrowed when she heard Jack's familiar voice. "Bout time you called back," she told him unceremoniously, even as she crossed back to the bathroom. "Here's Taylor. It's Jack," she said needlessly as she handed the phone over.

Stesha opened her mouth to explain that it wasn't a visit for her, but Ace's abrupt disconnection meant she didn't have a chance. Well, there was no harm in it, she guessed. Heck, it was probably a number she ought to hold onto for the future, just in case. Rising from the couch, she went to the bathroom and knocked gently. "Taylor? I got the number for Doctor Archeville, Ace says he's the best. You okay in there?"

"Oh, no, it's all taken care of," Stesha told him, looking towards the closed door of the bathroom. Even if Taylor couldn't get ahold of Jack, Stesha would go with her. She rather doubted that Taylor would want Ace along, no matter how solicitous he was willing to be for the occasion. "But I knew that you would know who to talk to. I really appreciate the help." She thought for a moment, trying to place the name he'd given her. "Doctor Archeville, he was at Taylor's party, wasn't he? He sang the funny song about biology." That was good, Taylor was obviously already acquainted with the man, so it would be easier for her. "He should be perfect."

"It's kind of an odd favor," Stesha began, tucking her legs up under her on the couch. "And I kind of need you to do it in the blind, at least for right now. But I figure if anyone would know, it would be you, since you know everybody." Well, that was disjointed, wasn't it. Marshalling her thoughts, Stesha got straight to the point. "I'm trying to find a doctor who specializes in treating metahumans. A doctor for women," she clarified, "an OB/GYN. Do you know anyone like that, anywhere?"

Stesha waited until Taylor was done with her call before she picked up her own phone, then waited till Taylor went back in the bathroom to dial. God, what a mess. How could this even have happened? Jack sure as hell wasn't fathering any children these days, and Stesha wasn't about to disbelieve Taylor when she said Jack was the only man she'd been with. That left a mistake with the test, some kind of serious illness, or other alternatives that were even more unsavory. Everybody had heard stories of the occasional supervillain who could and did do seriously messed-up things to women, their bodies, minds, or both. And Taylor dealt with a lot of bad guys who might hold grudges. Not to mention being married to a guy who could manipulate her mind if he wanted to, and who showed little compunction about using people to get what he wanted... no, she wouldn't ascribe that even to Jack, not without some kind of evidence first. Pushing all those worries aside, she pulled Ace up on her speed dial and called. "Hi, Ace, it's Stesha," she said immediately upon hearing the phone pick up. "I have a big favor to ask."

Stesha put a hand on Taylor's shoulder then gave her a hug, pressing her cheek against Taylor's hair as she, too, studied the damning test. "It'll be okay," she promised. "If there's something wrong, we'll figure it out, otherwise... well, we'll figure it out. But right now, we need to get some more information. Ace will know somebody, or know somebody who knows somebody. There have to be a couple of OB/GYNs who sideline in metahumans." She took a long breath. "Do you want me to call Jack for you?"